命의 인식과 命定論의 재해석— 知命에서 隨命으로, 인간의 선택과 행동 —

Abstract

Ancients' understanding of “destiny'' was divided into two based on the recognition that humans can neither know nor change it. The first understanding was that all phenomena of the universe are supervised by personal gods, and that their intention(god's will) is delivered to humans through destiny. The second understanding was that the basic awareness of and will to human independence were manifested, the notion shifted from god to humans, and destiny was comprehended in terms of ethics. They are categorized into two features once again. One characteristic is that auspicious and lucky ''destiny'' can be given through humans'' virtuous and good conducts, which is expressed as ''a good person gets blessings and a bad one meets with a misfortune.'' The other is that humans are separated from the outer environments which becomes revealed and develops by ''moral truth, virtues, the nature'' and etc. on the assumption of unity. In the modern era, the characteristics above are mixed and argued pro and con. The contrary understandings of ”destiny” are also reflected through conflicting opinions into the ''mind'' to face fortunes and misfortunes of an individual's life and diverse emotions. In the main text of the thesis, ancient people's understanding of destiny and the changes in their recognition were examined, and the modern meaning of ''destiny'' was reinterpreted centered around Wang Chung's determinism. Through which, the right attitude toward fortunes and misfortunes of an individual's life and diverse emotions was studied into, and the ways to help contemporary men were sought for. As the result, it has been concluded that the process of “knowing destiny → following destiny → choice and action(practice)” is the key factor to face one's own life properly.